Canon Buys Toshiba Out of SED

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Move to resolve litigation may put SED future in jeopardy.

By Gerry Block

The ongoing and increasingly complicated saga of SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display) technology has apparently hit another snag today. The technology, which IGN first observed and was blown away by at CES 2006, was originally announced as a joint project co-developed by Canon and Toshiba. Construction of a US $1.5 Billion manufacturing plant was planned to begin in late 2006 with the first models ready for commercial use in late 2007 followed by a consumer rollout in mid 2008. As we reported just two weeks ago (story), however, it was determined that a lawsuit filed by Nano-Proprietary was preventing SED displays from being exhibited at this year's CES and had delayed groundbreaking of the manufacturing center. Toshiba issued optimistic statements suggesting the lawsuit would soon be settled.

Toshiba's hopefulness was apparently unfounded. It has now been announced that Canon will buyout Toshiba's portion of the SED venture in order to satisfy Nano-Proprietary's complaints that Canon wrongfully shared licensed technology relating to carbon-nanotube electron emitters with Toshiba. The move is expected to prevent the litigation from dragging on in American courts.

Canon announced that the plans for the $1.5 Billion manufacturing plant are under review. The company does plan, however, to produce SED displays in significantly lower numbers at its own smaller plant and reaffirmed that the Japanese launch will still take place in Q4 2007. Concerns over the potential for SED to compete in terms of cost with far more established display technologies like LCD and Plasma have long haunted the technology, however, and low-volume production will likely have only negative effects upon possible efficiencies of scale that could allow the new technology to debut in a relatively comparable price-range.

Even more troubling for the future of SED is the fact that LED-backlit LCDs and new Plasma technology displayed recently at CES 2007 have dramatically narrowed the performance gap between SED and other displays. SED's previously mind-blowing 100,000:1 contrast ratio has been duplicated, and possibly surpassed, by displays that will roll out in volume as early as Q2 2007. Despite these obstacles, however, we'd certainly be stoked to kick it with a true nanotechnology based piece of high-end tech and will stay abreast with SED news as it develops.